Use the PRINTDS command to format and print data sets on any printer defined to the Job Entry System (JES). PRINTDS allows you to:

• Print data sets that have the following characteristics:
  • Sequential or partitioned (print the entire data set or selected members) Different types of control characters cannot be mixed within a sequential data set or in a PDS. However, different members of a PDS can contain different types of control characters. For more information about control characters, see PRINTDS command operands.
  • Movable or unmovable.
  • Fixed or variable record format.
  • Logical record length not greater than 32,760.
  • Resides on DASD.
• Reference output descriptors.
• Format the data and either print it or copy it to a data set.
• Print data sets that contain Document Composition Facility (DCF) data.

There are three types of operands you can specify on the PRINTDS command:

• The name and characteristics of the data set(s) or file to be printed.
• The formatting and output characteristic operands.
• The OUTDES operand referring to a previous output descriptor.